


Dinner with the Dorgeshuun

by Zanik_of_the_Dorgeshuun



Series: The Wind and the Waves [8]
Category: Runescape
Genre: F/F, Families of Choice, Family, Family Dinner, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Grandmothers, Hope, I love Dorgesh-Kaan, Loneliness, Post-Break Up, Quest: The Mighty Fall, Sixth Age, Worldbuilding, doktin's loving adopted cave goblin grandmas, gf left to rule another planet what do
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-26
Updated: 2017-11-26
Packaged: 2019-02-07 02:10:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12831087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zanik_of_the_Dorgeshuun/pseuds/Zanik_of_the_Dorgeshuun
Summary: When Zanik marches off to rule the Bandosians on Yu'biusk, where the hell does that leave poor Doktin? Sad and alone, that's where.Good thing she's got two loving goblin grandmas who've basically adopted her. She's not as alone as she thinks -- in more ways than one.





	Dinner with the Dorgeshuun

**Author's Note:**

> References events in [Sights of the Surface](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12311034) and [The Chosen Guardian](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11758056).
> 
> Timeline-wise, this takes place not long before the present-day events in [Tales of the Trials](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12668124).
> 
> Sixth Age year 4. Doktin's 23 years old.

The door to Zanik's house was closed.

Doktin's fingers lingered near her mouth, tracing where Zanik's lips had met hers. Her lips had been curved like the limbs of her crossbow. Her ears had been adorned with jewellery, trinkets from all across Gielinor, but the earrings with the Dorgeshuun symbols had always been at their base. Her eyes had been lidded heavy with exhaustion, illness and the early onset of age, but she could still see determination burning in them. The utter stubborn need to do what must be done.

She had to remember it all. She had to.

(In a moment of realisation, she finally understood her father's strange love of written poetry. Words could preserve what memory could not.)

A voice to her side: "Hello, Doktin." It broke through to her and she turned; there, as ever, was Tanrel.

"You saved us again," she said, simple and matter-of-fact in tone. Doktin could barely bring herself to care. The Dorgeshuun had insisted on festivities, but she'd made excuses and left. While the sound of the party carried on, it was at a distance, worlds away from Doktin's concerns; she'd needed a walk to think, and out of habit her feet had taken her to Zanik's house.

"She won't be there, will she?" Tanrel pursed her lips, then talked to Doktin directly: "I'm here. Worry not, my dear. I'm here, and soon, the extra-large frog roast I ordered will be here as well. Well, not _here_ here. At my house, I mean. Just Mekesh and myself at the moment, but you'll join us for dinner, won't you? After all that fighting, you'll need it!"

She hadn't had the appetite to eat anything at the street party. She realised she probably should -- and recalled a light-hearted conversation with Zanik about how, even as a Guardian of Guthix, she still needed to eat...!

It had been in this very house, too. She was standing metres away from where it had taken place, and she knew that nothing of the sort would ever happen again.

But Tanrel was still there. "Doktin, darling?" 

"What?" She didn't feel like it was her voice talking. Some stranger moving her mouth, saying words that weren't hers.

"Come with me. I know what this is like. The big bash in the street may be more harm than good, but you still need people. And I'm here."

Tanrel reached out her hand. Doktin waited, stared, remained as she was. The sound of the city was metres but miles away; the two of them stood in silence. Doktin's motion was hesitant and unsure, but nevertheless it happened: she took Tanrel's hand. The two of them walked away.

Doktin had explored this place for years, but Tanrel had known it for decades. She led Doktin through a passage she'd somehow never seen, taking her into a room in the north of the city.

The room was small, but well-furnished. Shelves covered the walls; trinkets and curios covered the shelves. A large, soft bed took up a quarter of the room. A well-polished stone table took up another quarter; three places were set, one occupied by an old Dorgeshuun woman in a wheelchair powered by electricity and divine energy. She had a strange dwarven gadget on the table in front of her, which was in the process of leaping an inch into the air when the two of them entered.

"Mekesh, my dear!" Tanrel hurried over and leant down to kiss the woman on the cheek. "It's about time you met Doktin!"

"Oh, the one and only!" Mekesh's gadget was bouncing all over the table; she clamped a hand down on it to bring it to a stop. "I've heard so much about you, and not all of it from Tanrel. Still most of it, mind you. You know how she goes on and on." Her voice was low and hoarse; her measured pace complemented Tanrel's high-pitched excitement. 

Tanrel swivelled in mock shock. "Me? Going on and on?" Then hearty and warm: "You love it, don't you?"

A cheeky, yet genuine smile. "I do, Tanrel. I really do."

"Oh, you're a _darling_ , you are! Right, my dears, frog is on its way!" Tanrel called out, hanging up her wide-brimmed hat on a hatstand and dashing back over to the table. "Shouldn't be much longer now! I had Mekesh set the table for you while I was gone, isn't it lovely and neat? She does some excellent work." She started to sit down and then halted: "Ooh. I know wall beast fingers are your favourite, Doktin dearest, but we ordered the frog roast before we thought to invite you. I can snatch a few fingers from the party, if you'd like...?"

Doktin remembered lounging on Zanik's bed, Zanik herself at her side, snacking on wall beast fingers and laughing. It had been the first time she'd laughed since... since she'd been made the World Guardian.

"Doktin?"

No, no use avoiding it. Guthix had died and everything she'd known had changed in the space of hours. She'd been confused, anxious, even angry, a mess of emotions that refused to be sorted out. Now was different, though. Zanik had left for good, and she'd felt next to nothing ever since.

"Take your time, love. It's alright." Tanrel paused. "I think I'll pop down to the market and get some anyway. Just so they're there if you wan---"

"No," Doktin heard her own voice say.

Tanrel nodded. "Just frog, then. More than enough for the three of us! I got them from Arkal in the market, and mark my words, his frogs are roasted to such perfection that you'll never want to eat anything else."

Doktin realised she was still standing while both of the goblins were seated; slightly embarrassed, she sat down at the table.

Mekesh was fiddling with a winding mechanism on the gadget in her hands; her arthritic fingers slipped on occasion, but she was managing well enough. "I told her to order an extra large frog. Normally, that would be far too much. One of those could feed a dozen, after all. But Oldak's developed something that he gave some ridiculous name, something like "The De-Heaterator"? I'm much more sensibly calling it a "freezer". It's a descriptive name -- it freezes things! I thought we should test it on leftover food, and of course, we need leftovers for that."

"And we'll have lots of leftovers with one of the extra-larges, that's for sure! Have you seen the _size_ of those things? Larger than an entire person! Well..." She glanced at Doktin. "Maybe not as big as Dot here. But still, they are _giant!_ " She stretched her arms as wide as she could to illustrate her point.

"In other words, slightly bigger than this one." Mekesh tapped the back of the gadget; it leapt into the air again -- three inches this time -- and clattered back down onto the table. It was a little toy frog, Doktin saw, crafted from metal and with clockwork mechanisms visible throughout. "I wouldn't recommend eating it!"

"Oh, absolutely not! You've made good use of it," Tanrel observed. "Which trip to Keldagrim was it when I got that one? I think it was... oh! That time I saw Doktin asleep on the train!"

"Aye." _That_ time. Just after Guthix died. Right at the beginning of everything turning into far more than she could ever hope to manage.

Tanrel continued: "That must make it... oh, three years old? You wouldn't know it! It's lasted well!"

"Absolutely! Those dwarves, they put care into their work. They build things to last! I keep telling Oldak to take inspiration from them, and he's _tried,_ but I think he's naturally inclined to make things whimsical rather than practical. There's no helping him!" Mekesh shook her head, though smiling regardless. "Him and his madcap ideas."

"Say, with that fancy new chair of yours, you could go on down to his lab and give him a piece of your mind whenever you want," said Tanrel.

Mekesh laughed. "And perhaps a decent idea, for once!"

Doktin remained silent, and it became all too noticeable as the laughter died down. The couple's smiles faltered, turning to expressions of sympathy

"You'll love the frog roast, Doktin," Tanrel said. "Have you ever tried it?"

"I don't remember."

"Well, you'd remember if you'd tried it! It's marvellous! All lovely and tender, the meat comes _right_ off the bone. Just like it does with those wall beast fingers!"

"I'm sorry, Tanrel, I'm not hungry," said Doktin. "I'll go."

Doktin stood to leave, and Tanrel stood to match her---

A rapid thumping on the door! Tanrel hurried to it and flung it open, revealing a panicked delivery goblin bucking under the weight of a box half her size. 

"Sorry for being late!" she panted. "We're rushed off our feet with the street party! And I'm sorry -- I'm _very_ sorry -- we don't currently... we didn't have any extra-larges left! This... this is a medium large!" She paused, wheezing. "So if you'll take this off me... I have... I have a refund for you!"

Doktin instinctively rushed over to help, relieving the poor goblin of her delivery and taking the box back to the table.

"Say... you're Karlet, aren't you?" said Tanrel, eyes creasing with her grin.

"Yes, that's me, yes," replied the young goblin, shaking a little. "You remember?"

Tanrel was beaming. "Oh, Karlet, of _course_ I remember! You were ever so young when I retired, weren't you? But you've grown so _big!_ And you're working now? I hope Arkal's treating you well! Oh, you...!" She looked to be on the verge of pinching Karlet's cheeks.

Beginning to blush, Karlet gave what was half a nervous giggle and half a wheeze. "Yeah! Uh, refund?" Her hands now free, she dipped into a coin pouch on her belt and scrambled around in it for the right coins.

"Keep it!" Tanrel insisted. "The Council's pension is good enough for me. You need it more than I do, my dear."

Karlet was on the verge of hyperventilation. "Thanks!" she squeaked, then near-slammed the door. They heard her footsteps scurrying away.

"Ah, she always was the nervous type," Tanrel muttered, more to herself than to anyone else. "I do hope Arkal treats her well."

At the table, Mekesh had got to work on opening the box. Her swollen fingers slid along the seams, but with Doktin's help she got it open. Inside was a steaming hot frog roast -- intimidatingly big, Doktin could barely imagine the "extra-large" -- that filled the room with its mouth-watering smell.

"Oooh!" Tanrel hurried back to the table, smacking her lips and rubbing her hands together. "Smells positively juicy! I'll serve up..."

Doktin sat back down, still feeling like she didn't fit here. Every breath took in the delectable smell of the roast frog, and though she still felt like an intruder, her stomach was successfully convincing her not to try leaving again. She hadn't eaten since Yu'biusk -- oh gods, Burntmeat's stew...

Three pieces of frog, covered with crackling green skin and cooked to tenderness beneath it, landed on Doktin's plate; a heap of chopped cave vegetables quicky followed.. She took her bone fork and poked at it until she jabbed a piece of meat, then brought it cautiously to her mouth -- _wow!_ Tanrel had been right about how good it was. As far as Doktin was concerned, she could eat nothing but this for the rest of her life and be all the better for it.

Noticing her wide-eyed expression, Tanrel beamed: "See? Arkal's roast frog, I've been all over the world and there's nothing quite like it!"

Doktin mumbled approval through her mouthful. Even gnome cuisine didn't taste as good as this.

"That girl at the door..." Mekesh began.

"Karlet, yes!" Tanrel set down her fork: "Ah, she was just a toddler when I left the nursery, but I still recognise her! Fidgety, shy, eyes always a little too wide open. That's Karlet."

Slightly cheered by the meal, Doktin spoke up: "You worked at the nursery?"

"I did! I was one of Mernik's assistants! I'd teach the big 'uns and help make sure the little 'uns didn't go for a wander. Of course, sometimes there was just no stopping that Zanik..."

Doktin paused mid-mouthful, and gulped down. Mekesh shot Tanrel a look of concern.

"I know what it's like," Tanrel said. She looked with slight anxiety at Mekesh, who nodded. She continued: "When I was young, I thought I had bagged the perfect man. Gulval was his name. We married as soon as we entered adulthood, and oh, I was _so_ happy. To have that handsome man all to myself -- the things we did together...!" She flashed Doktin a cheeky smirk.

"But then..." The smirk faded. "We got old. He got grumpy and miserable. But I just got livelier after retiring, always visiting friends, especially my darling Mekesh. He _hated_ that, he'd want me to always be at home with him. But then when I _was_ at home, I'd try talking to him and he'd tell me to shut up. That man could not make his mind up! I think..." She sighed. "I think we were both frustrated, cooped up in this city and with each other. Was that all there was to life? All there'd ever be?"

Mekesh gave Doktin a sympathetic smile. "Then you turned up."

"Yes!" Tanrel reminisced: "Some people were scared, but I was ecstatic! There was more out there! And Gulval... I asked him what he thought, but all he said was grumbling, in that deep voice of his: 'finally'. I didn't know what he meant by that, but when I made my first trip up to the surface, hoping to bring him back some delicious surface cuisine... I came back, and he was gone. Nowhere in the city. The guards told me he'd left for the surface, and he never came back."

"I'm sorry," Doktin said.

"Oh, don't worry," Tanrel assured her. "It was years ago. And it did me good in the end! I was distraught at the time, though. I'd been trying to make it work, and none of it had done any good. The man who'd been in my life for decades... gone. Just like that." She looked upwards: not at anyone or at anything, just staring. "I stayed at home a lot. Barely moved. I got one of Oldak's newfangled remote contact devices, all magic and wires, and I'd use that to order food every day without having to move from my bed. I was a mess!" She gave a weak, high-pitched laugh.

Mekesh rested a hand on Tanrel's arm. "Anyone would have reacted that way," she reassured her. "Life was always the same down here. We Dorgeshuun simply aren't used to dealing with drastic changes. To go from a relationship to nothing? It's more than one person can handle."

"Good thing there wasn't just one of us." Tears were starting to form in her eyes. "Mekesh, bless her heart, got worried and made her way to me whenever she could. It wasn't easy, was it? Back then, you only had that flimsy old cane..."

"Oh, I hated that thing! But it let me walk, and I managed well enough."

"And she sat by me and talked to me and kept me company. I needed that. I needed to have... _someone._ " Tanrel laid her hand over Mekesh's.

"Eventually, it became too much effort to walk to her house every day. Too much of a strain on my poor knees." She smiled, and looked lovingly at Tanrel: "Which gave me an excuse to start living with you full-time. You were right back to your old chatterbox self by this point. It made me so, _so_ happy to see."

"And with Gulval gone, I could finally admit to myself that I loved you." She gave Mekesh's hand a squeeze. "And after a year, the Council concluded he was never coming back, and then..."

"You married me." Mekesh's tone was knowing, warm and affectionate.

"I married you!" With the joy in Tanrel's voice, you'd think she was still a newlywed.

Even in her current state, Doktin couldn't help but smile.

"Don't lose hope, Doktin, dear," Tanrel said. "There's love out there for even an old biddy like me. This isn't easy. Of course it isn't! But you've got us, and you've got the future. And there's so much left to come for you."

"I suppose." It was hard to picture the same happening for her. She didn't exactly have a Mekesh... well, she had the actual Mekesh, but no friend and lover-to-be waiting in the wings.

"Stay with us as long as you want," Mekesh said. "We'll help you back up on your feet. And from then... it can be hard to realise when you're feeling so down, but an adventurer like you, surely you have other places to go, other people to see?"

Did she? She thought over her options.

A train trip up to Keldagrim, perhaps? She'd made a good friend in Veldaban, but the former king had enough problems of his own to able to help with hers. And just like in Dorgesh-Kaan, she'd found she could never live underground for too long.

Ali down in Nardah...? She'd known him since the beginning, but could she trust him? That snake Sliske had thrown everything into confusion. In all likelihood, he was as human as she was and Sliske was merely playing mind games... but even so, the doubt was there...

Further south in the desert, perhaps. She was well-liked among the sailors of Menaphos, but though she knew many of them, she was friends with very few -- even Hook-Hand Neith and that rogue Ozan were casual friends at best. Besides, the place was far too hot for her liking. And how would she even get in without Cyrisus and his port?

Something hit her. Cyrisus and Zanik, her partners in adventuring. Together they'd been a trio of do-gooders, getting involved all over the world.

All that was left of that was her. She was the World Guardian and she was alone.

"My goodness!" Tanrel exclaimed. "The frog's getting cold very quickly! We'd better hurry up and eat it while it's still all nice and warm."

No. For now, she wasn't alone. What she was, though, was _hungry._

**Author's Note:**

> Pretty much ever since I introduced Tanrel and mentioned Mekesh in The Chosen Guardian, I've been wanting to write a big family dinner with the two of them and Doktin. Appropriate that I finished this around the Thanksgiving-Christmas time of year!


End file.
